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To be fair... I don't watch the show anyway... I have been part of the conversation responding as I would have IF it were a show that I watched.

Fiction is fiction. Watching the show doesn't make tornadoes go away nor does it make them happen... not watching doesn't diminish the damage already done.

I see no correlation that networks (like CBS) try and make between a fictional TV show and a real-life event.

I actually don't care if they show it or not, since I don't watch it... but pulling it under the guise of "doing it for sensitivity" is a ruse. IF they had that kind of sensitivity for real, then they wouldn't have paid for an episode of a show that featured a tornado in a comedy in the first place. Lots of tornadoes strike every year... so are we saying that IF this one in Oklahoma had been only half as bad then it would be ok to air the show? Where is that line drawn? And what happens if another tornado strikes somewhere this week, will they postpone the episode again?

This is really just CBS trying to get some good will. Remember, this is the same CBS that has had a lot of bad will this year (remember CES and the CNET award?) so this is a chance for them to try and get some good PR for a change. That's all a company/network like this really has in mind.

A truly sensitive person to such things (and I think I've already said this a couple of times)... would either not make the episode in the first place, knowing there is the possibility that it would air during tornado season and might cause conflict... OR would air it anyway and USE that air-time to run a scroll with information on how to support the recovery efforts and use commercial breaks to inform people about tornado safety... also, a disclaimer at the start of the show indicating remorse for the victims and sympathy for the survivors and warning that the plot of the show involves a tornado.

That, to me, would seem to be more indicative of a network that cared... rather than one looking for ratings and publicity.

I actually don't care if they show it or not, since I don't watch it... but pulling it under the guise of "doing it for sensitivity" is a ruse. IF they had that kind of sensitivity for real, then they wouldn't have paid for an episode of a show that featured a tornado in a comedy in the first place.

I hope that we never get to that level of network control. There are some things that are never funny ... hopefully writers have the sensibility to keep that stuff out of their shows or go work for Comedy Central or another cable channel where no topic is safe from being mocked. (Fox's animation might be another outlet for a person's insensitive humor.)

The network says they pulled the show for sensitivity. You are calling them liars. Why is it so hard to believe that some executive saw that on the evening's schedule and didn't simply do what the press release said ... pulled the episode for a more appropriate time.

Perhaps an overreaction ... but this deep jump into conspiracy theories is far worse than anything CBS did.

This is really just CBS trying to get some good will. Remember, this is the same CBS that has had a lot of bad will this year (remember CES and the CNET award?) so this is a chance for them to try and get some good PR for a change.

What about CES and the CNET award? Does anyone outside of satellite forums even care about that? Perhaps some techies who see CNET as compromised and biased after the incident. Nothing CBS does short of selling CNET or publishing a retraction/apology will fix CNET's reputation. CNET could ignore CBS' mandate to try to clear their own reputation.

It is not all about us.

That, to me, would seem to be more indicative of a network that cared... rather than one looking for ratings and publicity.

It is your assumption that they were looking for ratings ... and perhaps now they will get them (over 100 posts here about the show can't be all bad). But it is also possible that they simply thought the show was in bad taste for that evening. Unless proven otherwise why can the network not be taken at their word? Or do networks have to be evil?

The point some have been making, though... is that CBS is in no way a "hero" here. They only did this for themselves, for publicity, to make themselves look good. Please lets not put CBS on the hero pedestal where people who did heroic things during the tornadoes to save others belong.

That's what irks me. I can watch my TV anytime... I just don't like when people or organizations try to take advantage of a disaster for their own public image.

Who is making them out to be heroes? It is pretty much a slam dunk decision. No matter how many lives wound up lost or not, this was a big story of tragedy playing out on TV screens and it was a no brainer to not have a comedy on that probably made light of tornadoes. It was just the right decision. Not because of some heroism or some cause. Just because it was sensitive and sensitive, when you rely on the good will of the people to buy your product, is good business sense.

As for CBS. They didn't grandstand. They didn't say "aren't we great." They just quietly rescheduled the show an appropriate week and a half later.

Seems the only people distorting this as some great morality issue are those who think they have a right to watch a TV show no matter what is going on. Those of us agreeing with cbs's decision are just saying it was right. They didn't do nor did they claim anything heroic. They just made the right decision. That does not make for heroism in my book unless the right decision is a hard one. This was an easy one an would be done by 100% of the entertainment business.

clearly people think differently .. this is one of a few threads recently that make that point definitively clear.

CBS made a wise business move and if I were them I would have done exactly the same thing. That wise business move was respecting that real life is more important than fictional life. It's very easy to look back and say that CBS did the wrong thing, but they did the wrong thing for the right reason. There was very little time for the execs to make a call on this one. Heck, in hindsight, they probably should have just pulled the episode and rather than saying anything about the tornado in the episode they should have said that it was preempted due to the tornado coverage .. Nobody would have thought twice about that statment.

The funny thing is .. with all of the time shifting people do anyway what difference does it really make? Surely there's something more compelling to watch or do than worry about a single 30 minute TV show.

For what it's worth, I saw the episode in question over the weekend. Apparently it ran as scheduled in Canada last week as the copy I saw had the "CityTV" logo.

Yeah, a bad storm is a major part of the plot and there are times where the characters are paying attention to the news listening to where funnel clouds are sighted and/or touching down.

I really didn't think the delay was that big of a deal. To be honest I have more irritation at network stations who squash an entire program to put up a crawl for school closings that have been announced "the night before" and constantly run that list for the entire program EXCEPT when the commercials are running.

Big hullabaloo about making a safe decision to postpone a whole week to just avoid the day it was happening. CBS made the right decision. They didn't cancel. They just said that was not the right day. Anybody dumping on them is either whining or looking for an argument.

Anyone that wants to record this, check your ToDo list, or whatever your favorite provider calls it. Since it was preempted at the last minute, and isn't flagged as new, my DVR wasn't going to record it.

With the weather reports, it will be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully no major tornadoes.

Yeah, a bad storm is a major part of the plot and there are times where the characters are paying attention to the news listening to where funnel clouds are sighted and/or touching down.

I certainly would not want to use the episode as a tornado safety video. People standing around outside watching stuff blow around ... going to other people's houses instead of taking shelter ... driving in the storm ... and then when "it hits" standing in a circle in a basement. But the show is a comedy.

BTW: This is the first episode I have watched and probably will be the last. Kind of a bland group of people for a comedy.